As well as Zinfandel, Dry Creek excels at Grenache, Cabernet Sauvignon and Sauvignon Blanc. These grape varieties were on show too. The variety of grapes is the product of the diverse terroir in the area. Although only about 16 miles long and two miles wide (anchored by lake Sonoma in the north and and Dry Creek and the Russian River in the south) there are three distinct territorial characters in Dry Creek Valley: the hillsides, benchland, and valley floor. Sauvignon Blanc thrives on the valley floor due to the mineral-rich sandy loam soil. Cabernet Sauvignon is especially suited to the benchlands, due to the clay loam that predominates. Zinfandel, with 2,400 of the 9,000 planted acres of vines, is grown on the hillsides where igneous, gravelly soils are found.

Estate 1856 may be a winery, it may be a skunkworks*, but their 55-case production 2011 Cabernet Sauvignon is all dark fruit, spices and 100% French oak. This wine is 97% cabernet Sauvignon……with the rest comprised of Petit Verdot. Likely to age for a decade.

Hopefully one result of their visit will be more retail distribution of their wines. If they are not findable, order direct from the winery web site. Dry Creek makes exceptional wines that will add considerably to your wine enjoyment.

*A skunkworks is a group of people who, in order to achieve unusual results, work on a project in a way that is outside the usual rules. A skunkworks is often a small team that assumes or is given responsibility for developing something in a short time with minimal management constraints. Typically, a skunkworks has a small number of members in order to reduce communications overhead. A skunkworks is sometimes used to spearhead a product design that thereafter will be developed according to the usual process. A skunkworks project may be secret. Definition provided by the online Urban Dictionary!

A Gold Medal Winner at the prestigious 2014 San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition. This blend of 98% Cabernet and 2% Petit Verdot is barrel aged for 22 months in French oak. A bouquet of black cherry pie and baking spice with hints of pie crust. Soft mouth-feel with soft tannins and balanced acidity. Flavors of black cherry, blackberry, ripe plum, vanilla and earthiness with a bit of dark chocolate in the long finish. Buy This Wine

The seemingly basic task of pruning is actually one of the most important – determining the yield, spacing, even the quality of the next vintage. Since November, our crew has been hard at work cutting back last year’s canes.

These are a few shots of our last Cabernet block (Clone 4) to get the shear treatment.

The vines in their dormant stage. Once the leaves fall, pruning can get underway.

We prune in stages, first removing the top half of the canes, which sometimes involves wresting the canes off of the trellis wire.

Brian making the final cut.

By Janice|
2017-05-19T21:03:38+00:00 January 20th, 2014|Grapegrowing|Comments Off on Pruning

Estate 1856 Wines

Did you know that we have our own wine brand, ESTATE 1856 WINES? We have been making our special red wine blends since 2009 and every one of our table wines has won GOLD!

We also have several BEST OF CLASS wines and one special RED SWEEPSTAKES wine from the 2013 Sonoma County Harvest Fair! You can connect with us and buy our wines at WWW.ESTATE1856.COM!

Read about our 2012 Duvall's Prospect, our Bordeaux Blend, crafted from Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec and Petit Verdot that has won THREE Gold Medals, TWO Double Gold Medals and ONE Platinum Medal!

Explore our two BEST OF CLASS Bordeaux varietals, our 2013 Malbec and our 2013 Petit Verdot. Not only has the 2013 Malbec won Best of Class at the 2015 San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition but it also scored 95 points and a Gold Medal at the 2016 North Coast Wine Challenge and won a Gold Medal at the 2015 Grand Harvest Awards. Our 2013 Petit Verdot won a Gold Medal at the 2015 Sonoma County Harvest Fair, a Double Gold Medal at the 2015 Grand Harvest Awards and the coveted Best of Class at the 2015 San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition!